Opinion: Democrats' Tax Flip-Flop

Columnist Bill McGurn on the liberal fiction that Republicans gave away tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the middle class. Photo credit: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... well ... God was all middle-class tax cuts hostage ... simply because they refused to let tax rates go up ... on the wealthiest Americans ... welcome back to Opinion Journal I'd Underwood main Street Columnist Bill McGurn ... of bells over the president has been saying now for ... I guess four years that Tom and tax cuts George Bush's tax cuts for the rich were destructive they were all told they were evil and NAB's intent on overturning them ... that leaves hanging in your mind I guess the question of ... one of those tax ... rates George Bush's tax rate for the middle class do the last four years I mean look the ... way when you said tax cuts for the rich that was a short and it was the view ... Bush tax cuts for the rich ... in your four wins for the super wealthy for the ultra wealthy with every one of the color ... and that was present Obama is ... a mantra as as a candidate so forth ... now he's telling us the Republicans stand in the way ... the continuing middle-class tax cuts ... better in fact Bush tax cuts it says in any sane universe ... we would be recorder saying ... this complex with what you've been telling us in your party's been telling us for ten years ... well ... as I understand the President's logic here ... he wants those tax ... increases on the wealthy because he wants to produce revenue which in turn will be used to pay for what he calls investments he described the man at the address over the weekend ... education ... research and energy ... he seems to think that ... top two percent are somehow going to sustain ... all of the spending by ... what I just I just take it down to more simple level and that ... that's based ... on the narrative that they've developed over ten years ... that the tax cuts passed by President Bush and Republicans with some Democratic support initially ... not only favoring the rich ... but team anomaly favor the rich ... it came at the expense of the middle class ... and that was something we heard from and to close the and Harry Reid all the time when ... completely on challenge ... by our press corps ... now that the president what he's saying he's he's saying we have to continue the same seats are vital ... he's always said that he wants continued tax cuts for the middle class ... but he never told was how substantially are ... you know at this meeting in Pennsylvania new saying he's quoting the Tax Policy group writing ... that it would be twenty two hundred dollars for family for ... the sounds pretty substantial and for ten years we've been told the middle class got nothing from this ... well on the one hand he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy to expand thing Citi says the middle classes were deprived of ... the baby was ... tax cuts for the middle class so they simply spend their money on things in the economy I reckon who's going to really get stuck with that that the middle class or or the upper class ... and this is you know his idea of ... on Economy Road scholar economy grows government knows best ... and it just I just wanna emphasize is gone completely unchallenged ... where Pres our press corps a guarantee I've no idea ... there is a single middle class person in United States ... that benefited from the Bush tax cuts ... now present Obama tells us these are vital credit that their whole future depends on this ... at thank so much so ...